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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Farnboro John" data-source="post: 2845374" data-attributes="member: 36432">Well there's me of course. Growing up in Farnborough I was aware of planes from an early age and the idea of flight fascinated me. With the MOD(PE) fleet at Farnborough, the airshow, the Army's helicopters and the late Doug Arnold's collection of warbirds at Blackbushe I went the military route and a diet of Dambusters, Battle of Britain etc sent me into warbirds where 633 Squadron hooked me specifically onto the wonderful multi-role De Havilland Mosquito. I have sat in the pilot's seat of the prototype Mosquito, W4050 - a good blag for a spotter!Birding came later from watching birds flitting about at airfields during plane-spotting trips all the way down the great array of RAF and USAF airfields that during the Cold War held hundreds of modern military aircraft (now mostly museum pieces - how time flies. I just wondered what the birds were. What a slippery slope that turned out to be!These days I still make a lot of effort over Farnborough airshow, attend Duxford's Flying Legends annually and of late have started to take notice of places with good backgrounds e.g. Bournemouth and the five-yearly Dambusters anniversary flypasts at the Derwent reservoir - which is also good for Red Grouse of course. These take second place to twitches though!John</blockquote>